Fat Shaming Study: Guilt Trip Isn't Effective for Weight Loss

A new British study shows "fat shaming" isn’t an effective way to get an overweight person to lose weight.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University College London, will soon be published in the medical journal Obesity. The report indicates that discriminating against people who are overweight is actually counter-productive in helping a person lose weight.

Jackson said that when someone is discriminated against because he or she is overweight, they feel "less confident about taking part in physical activity, so they tend to avoid it."

"Our study clearly shows that weight discrimination is part of the obesity problem and not the solution,” added Jane Wardle, director of the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Centre at UCL. “Weight bias has been documented not only among the general public but also among health professionals, and many obese patients report being treated disrespectfully by doctors because of their weight.”

Late last year, blogger Melissa McEwen started a Twitter hashtag called #fatmicroagressions, where people who are overweight or obese share the things other people say to them about their weight.

Microaggression, according to The Huffington Post, is "a term coined by Professor Chester Middlebrook Pierce in 1970" and "refers to small acts of aggression towards people of a certain group — usually those of non-privileged races, classes, or ethnicities."

Some of the tweets shared were from women and men who have experienced fat shaming: